A cup holder meant for a wheelchair adapted using a 3D printed bracket for use on a walker (Photo: Scott Sullivan)

Scott Sullivan, long-time member and current president of HackLab, preaches the practicality of 3D printing. When a regular guest at the lab went from using a wheelchair to using a walker, Scott volunteered to help adapt their wheelchair’s accessories to the new support, including a cup holder. He designed a bracket that allowed the cup holder to be attached to the different shaped body of the walker.

Around the lab, one can also find many examples of practical ingenuity that was made possible by 3D printing. A 3D printed desk organizer sits on the soldering bench holding important components so they are not lost. Customized brackets hold the game consoles to the wall in the TV area. There are even bag hooks at each hot desk so that desks are kept clear, and bags are kept off the ground. Ice trays are stacked up in the freezer with specially created shelves.

“As I’ve had the privilege of visiting other hacker spaces across North America, I’ve never failed to find a 3D printer and some practical problem in the space solved with a 3D print,” said Scott.

Ice trays stacked using 3D printed shelves (Photo: Scott Sullivan)

A big aspect of the technology’s practicality is how quickly new items can be prototyped. Fabricating an item using a 3D printer can be quick and approachable. Whether you find a model online or make your own in software, there is something so convenient and magical about an object coming into existence layer by layer. I needed a bowl for the change that was collecting on my bedside table, so I found a cool design online and printed it. Unfortunately, its original size was too small. Forty five minutes later, I had a perfect bowl for my out-of-control coin situation.

Two 3D printed bowls of different sizes. The bowl on the left was too small so the one on the right was printed. (Photo: Luciano Cesta)

HackLab was an early adopter of consumer 3D printing. In 2009, the lab had a low serial number Makerbot Cupcake CNC printer, one of the first commercially available consumer 3D printers. While the quality of its printed objects was not reliable, it was immediately useful to the lab as something to attract people to the space. It allowed people “to rapidly start exploring ideas,” said Scott.

Hacklab’s low serial number Makerbot Cupcake CNC 3D printer (Photo: Hacklab Public Wiki)

The Cupcake CNC’s frame was made of laser cut wood and was known to break and produce inconsistent prints. As Brian Benchoff said on Hackaday: “The Cupcake was a primitive machine, but it existed, it was open source, and it was cheap – under $500 if you bought it at the right time.” He notes that they were ubiquitous in maker spaces.

The lab now uses printers like the Prusa Mini and the Creality K1 which are more approachable. Preparing the printer and sending a file to print is a breeze. The Cupcake CNC required a lot of tinkering from job to job but was still a powerful tool for drawing people to the lab and empowering them to make things.

With the consistent quality of prints and their ease of use, 3D printers have become practical tools for solving problems that cannot be easily solved with an off the shelf part. As I sit writing this blog post, a member is printing a simple coat hook for his apartment. The printer is whirring away in the background solving another problem cheaply and elegantly.

3D modeling is a key tool in the maker toolkit and HackLab is full of makers who are skilled in the process.

Lawrence Temple, a longtime member of HackLab, taught a class this past August explaining the fundamentals of measuring the real world and using CAD software.

“In the maker community, there’s a lot of different ways that [3D modeling] can be used,” said Lawrence.

He mentioned three different uses of 3D modeling that are commonly deployed in HackLab; art, 3D printing, and machining.

“Anything that exists in three dimensions, you can model,” he said.

The first thing that Lawrence taught is how to measure things with precision. He spent an hour and a half of the three-hour class teaching participants how to use calipers to accurately measure objects in real life so that they can be recreated in a CAD program. Participants measured the dimensions of their cellphones and created models of them on their computers. Those models could then be used to create cases.

Lawrence, a software engineer by trade, wanted to get into 3D modeling to build a Gameboy Macro – a project where you modify a Nintendo DS Lite by breaking off the top screen, making it into a big Gameboy like device. He first learned how to model at the Fort York branch of the Toronto Public Library and then taught himself more using YouTube videos.

He spends some of his time at HackLab on his 3D modeling projects. He’s made a few different projects using the skills he has taught in the class, one of them being light fixtures, the results of which can be found in HackLab. The fixtures are thin-walled and clear, created in a vase style for aesthetic purposes. Through the design process he has been able to make different light diffraction patterns. His favourite fixture diffracts the light in a flame pattern.

From teaching the class Lawrence has learned that there are multiple ways to approach the same problem in design.

“You can basically approach [3D modeling] as many ways as you would draw a picture,” he said. “Some of it is intuition and some of it is tools.”

Over the next few months, we will be posting about the myriad of projects that people get up to at HackLab. Make sure to check back regularly for updates!

It can be hard to get information about social services in Toronto for people who are experiencing homelessness. They may not have regular access to the internet and pamphlets are notoriously easy to lose. Zach Donsky, a long-time member of HackLab, thought that there was a better way.

In 2018, Zach created Chalmers Cards, a set of wooden squares that have an abundance of important information laser-cut into them. They are tied together by an elastic hair tie that also makes it easy to attach to pants or a backpack and can be distributed by workers within the social services system. The cards can be easily and cheaply produced in maker spaces across the city and print files can be found on the project’s GitHub. It takes around three hours to make eight sets of cards and the materials cost around $1.

“Access to social services is not as easy as I think it should be,” said Zach.

Information is available online but is not often in the simplest terms. Most of the resources recorded on the Chalmers Cards are accessible through 24-hour toll free phone numbers. You can find contact numbers for TeleHealth, shelter referral, legal aid and more. Many people experiencing homelessness do not have regular access to computers or the internet, so phone numbers are often their best option for accessing services.

“A lot of social services documentation is available on the internet,” according to the Chalmers Card website. “But getting on the internet is a real chore when you don’t own a computer.”

The cards also contain brief guides on getting government identification and financial aid – no access to a computer required.

More than 1000 cards have been produced and distributed since the project was started.

Hacklab has been hosting our friends DIYBIO for a while now. And with their presence a great symbiotic relationship has developed between the two groups. DIYBIO has a  bio lab in the Hacklab  space that has grown to a place where they can start running experiments.  The photo gallery below shows one of the experiments recently conducted. For more information on DIYBIO visit their website at DIYBIO.to. As well as visit Hacklab on Tuesdays for our open house to talk to some of the DIYBIO people in person. 

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The electrons are being excited this weekend at Hacklab with the Sound hackers audio meet up happening on Saturday January 10th, 2 pm – 12 am.
Click here to see  a complete schedule of events happening.

As a pre-amp to all the electrons being excited. Enjoy some of the photos from the Toronto Synth meet up, where I met up with one of Hacklabs members Andrew Kilpatrick and had the chance to play with his new Synth the phenol (Photo below). Andrew has a  Kickstarter for the lovely piece of hardware on the go if you like more info on it.  This is a bit of a different cross talk then in the past. For this is the first time a cross talk has gone from an external event into a internally hosted one.
There has been an Audio swap meet in the past and, now we have the great pleasure of hosting the Sound Hackers meet up at Hacklab.
Stay tuned for this weekends photos. In the mean time here are the best of the Synth meet up from November 2014.

 

 

Out of necessity one of Hacklab’s members had to replace his pedal due to it literally falling apart leaving a stub, if he did not he would not make it to open house in time.
The new pedals that where picked up were the wrong size, so the only logical thing to do was to build a replacement pedal seeing as the stub of the former pedal was still good.
The new pedal functions fairly well but will need to be replaced or reworked for a smoother usage, and needs a little oil. The final pedal has been finished off with a coating of linseed oil that has been rubbed into it.

This years Mini Maker Faire in Toronto is over, but it was a grand success in my eyes.
People from all walks of life and age came out to explore, create, share ideas, and hack.
I believe the community just became a little bit bigger from this weekend, and a lot closer for those already in the community creating new connections and friendships.
I am hard at work combing through the photos, trying to decide what to do with them all.

I hope everyone had a blast this weekend and made memorys.
Here are a few moments I captured that I care to share.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This weeks is to be viewed as a bit of a comic strip.
Effect and Cause, Cause and Effect.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Several weeks ago now the Toronto Mini Maker Faire Launch party happened.

You can find more images on the following photo streams; Photo booth shots and more,  Photos by Adam Evenden

Upon entering the launch party and registering attendees where faced with an arts and crafts table, full of hot glue, blank masks, LED’s, Coin battery’s, pipe cleaners, markers,  tape, Glitter, and more.
Click more to see some of the creations.

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